Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert offered opening remarks at the start of the General Assembly’s special session:

Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you for your remarks. I think it is acceptable for me to indicate that our caucus is supportive of why we are here today and probably for the next two.

I ask for this opportunity to maybe speak more to the people outside of the Capitol, because the last several months, as the good senator from Aurora indicated, this has been a very challenging year.

People outside the Capitol have understandably asked, “Why is their state legislature so silent, why haven’t we been doing anything?” And it has been an opportunity (you know what I like to do) to explain the history of our Constitution, and decisions that the People of Colorado have made to amend that State Constitution.

In 1988, the people of Colorado voted on what was then known as “Amendment 3”. Amendment 3 passed on the ballot, and the people made a significant change to their state legislature.

Last year, the state Supreme Court ruled on a matter regarding that significant change, that change in 1988 created a 120 day session calendar here at the Capitol. We’re not allowed to go more than 120 days in general session. But it did more than that. It converted we state legislators here in Colorado from full-time year round elected officials, to part-time citizen legislators.

And what I have found is that when people learn what the voters approved in 1988, they’re not alarmed. They’re not frustrated. They appreciate knowing that history. Because so many people who live in Colorado now weren’t old enough to vote in 1988, didn’t live here in 1988, or weren’t even born yet in 1988.

That was 32 years ago. There have been many people voting here in Colorado who weren’t even born when that decision was made. People have rightly asked, “Why is the governor allowed to do so much on his own?” In large part, it’s because of that decision in 1988.

The legislature isn’t here for eight months a year, and this year it changed a bit because of the extension due to Covid. We left here June 15th, and since then this branch of our state government, the legislative branch, has been inactive because the people decided 32 years ago that they wanted a part-time citizen legislature. And that’s unique because those limitations don’t apply to any other elected official in Colorado, whether we look to school board members or town or city council members, mayors, county elected officials, our state-wide electeds, special district board members.

Of course the governor, the secretary of state, the treasurer and the attorney general, our members of Congress can meet year round. But we cannot, unless two-thirds of us agree to call a special session, which certainly has not occurred since 1988 when the voters told us they didn’t want us here more than 120 days a year.

So the way special sessions have happened since then, and really, I think every time since 1876, is that we rely on the governor to call a special session. Which is the next thing I want to address.

Understandably, people have been weighing in at least with the Minority Caucus, we Republicans, saying “Now you’ll have an opportunity to do this or that, to run a bill to address some topic that is important to those people who are advocating.

But if we go back to our State Constitution, Article IV Section IX says that the governor has the authority to call the legislature into special session, but that topics not specifically identified in the call cannot be “transacted”.

Now that’s an unusual word because I don’t typically use that word in describing the processes here at the Capitol, but I think what it means… I’m not an attorney, but in my layperson mind I think what it means is that topics that the governor has not called us back to address can’t pass. And if we were to put a bill on his desk that he thinks is outside his call, he could choose to veto that bill simply because he determines on his own that it is unconstitutional.

All of this information is available to those who take time to read our Constitution, but it may not be obvious because not everyone gets to participate in this fascinating process that we do. But I do appreciate Mr. President, the opportunity to explain some of this because in recent days I’ve definitely heard from people who say, “Finally… we are going to be able to pass a bill that does this or does that”.

There will be bills from our caucus that seek to address some of those issues, but I wanted to take the time to explain the limitations that we have as a legislature and the limitations that we have as a minority in the legislature, and to explain — not blame, but to simply explain that the answers can be found in a document that very few people ever take time to read; the Constitution of the State of Colorado.

Mr. President, I’m proud to stand with you here today and with our 33 other colleagues, either here in this room, or online. I look forward to hearing what from the people of Colorado who come here to testify or, I think for the first time do that remotely, by I think Webex, we will learn here. This will give us an opportunity to prepare for January 13th, when the next general session starts. General sessions are when we all get to introduce up to five bills of our own choosing of general concern to the State of Colorado.

But today, Day One of what will likely be a three day session, we are here to focus on special concerns; in a special session. Concerns that have been specifically identified by the governor and brought us back for a very good reason: balanced government. And I want to thank the good senator from Adams County, the Chair, our lead on the Joint Budget Committee for standing up for this branch. For standing up for the legislative branch of our state government. Thank you.

Also to the senator in our caucus from Carbondale, thank you, and by the way, for those listening online, our rules don’t allow us to use the names of our fellow senators, so that’s why we refer to them by their districts, but what we are doing here today is standing up for our branch, the legislative branch. We’re here to represent the people within the limitations of our State Constitution.

Senate Republicans asked months ago for the governor to call a special session, our interest at that time was to discuss issues surrounding public K – 12 education. Not necessarily to ask for vouchers, but to talk with teachers and school districts, they have local control here in Colorado. Are there things that we could change at least during the pandemic that would make it easier for teachers to connect with students? One idea I had was a question: Would a teacher in a public school in Colorado be allowed to get in his or her car and go to a house, or maybe a community center at a homeowners’ or association or rec center and teach a small group of kids in that facility?

I don’t know the answer to that, and I don’t know if a school board would need our help in making that decision. But those were the kinds of conversations that we wanted to have months ago. That was a legitimate request of the one person who can do that on his or her own, the governor. But that was described at the time as a “political stunt”. Okay. It wasn’t.

Mr. President. Colleagues. Senate Minority Caucus members. We Republicans are here to work together for the people of Colorado and we are proud to do so. We are proud to have the opportunity to represent them and to stand up for balance in government, the legislative branch. And we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the leadership of our Joint Budget Committee, so gentlemen again, thank you for what you did in that environment.

Mr. President, there are solutions that Senate Republicans will propose, I hope they will be given fair consideration in a hearing. If it means we need to be here for more than three days, then we are prepared to do that.

Mr. President, thank you for your communication, Mr. Majority Leader, thank you also for your communication over the last few weeks in organizing this special session. God bless every member of this General Assembly, the people of Colorado, and the United States of America.

Thank you, Mr. President.